The Gathering: Kyoto Edition pt.1 - It all began so innocently

I've met so many people here in Japan that have become very important to me. One of the problems with the whole living in Japan thing though is that the lifestyle tends to be a bit nomadic and so people come and go quite often. This meant that I ended up having many friends spread out all around the country and I am unable to see them as much as I'd like. During a small reunion of sorts at the sake festival in Hiroshima last month this very topic was discussed and it was decided that we should try to gather together a group of those amazing people. It was also decided (luckily for me) that Kyoto would be a great place to meet, partially because it's a great city, and partially because it's centrally situated in the country and thus a nice meeting spot for people living in both the north and south. Eventually the list of friends to gather grew and grew until eventually it topped out around 18-19. Waaaaah! That was a pretty imposing number of guests to try to take into my house, but if there's one thing that being in Japan does it's teach you how to do a lot with a small amount of space. And so began one of the best weekends of my life.

Here Ms. Larisa and Warren curl up in my bedroom to enjoy an afternoon showing of the Beatles movie "Help!" which is definitely among my top 5 favorite films ever. Seriously it's just amazing.

What a gangsta. A poor flu infected gangsta.

"Science" experiment 1: Watching the toothpicks dance.

Watching the sunset through my kitchen window. One of my favorite pastimes.

Purty.

There was so much love happening on that couch. In fact I hearby name that couch "The Couch of Love and Influenza".

Taking off enmasse to the izakaya to start our first couple hours of nomihoudai.

Yes! This wasn't even the entirety of our group too.

Mother Naoko politely pouring beers for folks (to be contrasted with a later photo).

Yay for Kimchi Nabe!

Here's a game. See how many toothpicks you can stick in someone's hair before they notice. Official world record (I'm guessing) was something around 13 for the evening.

John and the evenings highly contested beer olympics.

Somehow the world seems a bit more Irish...

Enough of this beer mugging! We're Nomihoudaiing people!

Some new friends from the Kyoto University tennis club. Jolly sorts that lot.

A classic case of grassroots internationalization.

Yup, pretty sure that's not your wallet Ding.

Funny, I don't remember us renting bikes...

Beware of airborne Canadians.